Elphaba
by VocallyWritten
Summary: A vengeful witch places a curse on Frexspar, causing his first born child, Elphaba, to be born with green skin. Horrified, he hides her from the world until "one of her own kind" can learn to love her and break the curse. A retelling of the movie Penelope


In Munchikinland, there was no bachelor more eligible than the governor's young son, Frexspar Thropp. Which is why it came as a surprise to everyone in the household that he was in love with a servant girl, the seamstress, whom he planned to marry. His entire family despaired in such a vulgar match, and they tried to sway him, telling him of the shame he would bring the family if he were to go through with the marriage. Unfortunately for the young girl, Frexspar was easily swayed and soon called off their engagement, marrying a wealthy merchant's daughter named Melena instead.

Devastated by the loss of her love, the young woman threw herself off a cliff, being six weeks pregnant with his child. Frexspar had no way of knowing that he had inadvertently invoked the wrath of a powerful witch until she came to tell him so.

A week after the ill-fated girl had killed herself, her mother, the renowned witch Madame Morrible, came to the governor's mansion, demanding an audience with the young man and his new wife. She then accused him of murdering her poor daughter, and no matter how much Frexspar tried to reason with her, she would not believe any other version of the story. Angry and grieving, Madame Morrible demanded penance, and was further angered when Frexspar offered her money. Could he not see that the life of her beloved daughter was worth more than all the money in the world? No, she explained that she had a much different kind of penance in mind. A curse, she declared to them, a curse that would make them realize the pain of rejection that came from being different. She would make sure that their first born child would be shunned from their upper-class, like her daughter had been.

When inquired what exactly she planned on doing to the child, she replied:

"The child shall be born with green skin, making her too different to be accepted in your class. She will be seen as a freak, an abomination, and you as well, for giving life to the girl."

Frexpar glared at her while Melena burst into tears. "I will not have you threatening me, Madame! It is not my fault that your silly daughter decided to jump off some cliff, and I will not have you humiliating me!"

"The girl will be born with green skin, Frexpar, but because it is you I am truly after and not your daughter, I will offer her this chance: If she can get one of her own kind to love her, the curse will be lifted, and the penance will be complete." Morrible told him coldly. She turned on her heel to leave when Melena called out for her to stop.

"You keep saying it will be a daughter, how would you know the gender of a child not yet conceived?" Melena asked slowly. Madame Morrible turned around and offered the young woman a sad almost smile.

"With all the pain your husband put my daughter through, how could it not be?" And with that, she left. Frex scoffed at the ridiculousness of a child being born green, especially _his_. Melena on the other hand, was troubled, unlike her husband it was not the humiliation of birthing a green child that upset her, but the possibility that her daughter would be punished for something her father had done. It didn't seem right to her at all, someone else paying for another's sins. But what could she do about it? At least there was a chance for her baby, that was about all she could hope for now. What is done is done.

Two years later, Munchkinland was abuzz with excitement, the governor's wife was having a baby, a girl, and everyone was gathering for a celebration in the child's name. Inside the mansion, Melena Thropp clutched at her stomach and gave a shriek of pain. The baby was coming. And to the midwife's horror, but no one's surprise, the girl's skin was a fantastic emerald color. Frex was far from pleased.

"Take it away!" He demanded. "Take this monster away!"

"Frex!" Melena protested.

"No Melena! She's not my child, but the witch's, she did this to us, she gave us this... This thing!" Melena gasped at her husband's treatment to his newborn daughter.

"Frex, she is our daughter, no matter what color she is. You can't just get rid of her!"

"Fine!" He growled. "Claim her if you want, do with her what you wish, but she will never be mine. I will have nothing to do with her, and neither will the rest of Munchkinland." He summoned a servant to the room and demanded that he bring the news of the infant's unfortunate death to the rest of the people. Melena gaped at Frex as he did the same thing with two other servants, and instinctively held her daughter closer to her. She looked down at her child and cried for her. Her own father would not accept her, how could anyone else? How could she break the curse if everyone was too repulsed by her? Melena knew that she had to break the curse for her daughter, being green for the rest of her life was simply too cruel.

"Don't worry, Elphaba." She whispered. "You won't be green forever."

And so Elphaba grew up in loneliness, even after her sister Nessarose was born. Nessa, unlike Elphaba, was perfect in her father's eyes despite being crippled. Worried that the curse would strike again, Frex had made Melena eat milk flowers to make sure that Nessa was born a normal color. Unfortunately, it had caused early labor and Nessa's handicap. The midwife said that Melena was luck to have survived, but the scare of almost dying had made her obsessive about Elphaba's curse. She decided that she needed to fix her before she died, she believed it would ensure her daughter's happiness when she was gone. All it did was make the young Elphaba Thropp feel as though there was something wrong with her. Something that made daddy hate her and mommy worried and she knew it was her fault. Daddy had told her as much.

Being assumed dead also lead to a lack of friends, but it wasn't like most people wouldn't run from her screaming their heads off after seeing her. No one outside of the mansion knew of her existence and the people who did know of her were threatened with death if they said anything. It couldn't stay this way forever, though. Elphaba had to break the curse, and in order to do that, she had to meet young men of her own class and marry one.

And so began the interviews at the age of sixteen.


End file.
